HS Baseball Playoffs: Rockwall-Heath Defeats Oak Ridge in Game 1

Corsicana, TX – The Oak Ridge War Eagles met the Rockwall-Heath Hawks at Corsicana High School on Thursday for Game 1 of the Regional Semifinals. Ranked 6th in Texas for the 6A class, Rockwall-Heath needs a quick lead against the War Eagles if they want to jump to an early series win. Number 17 Oak Ridge is the second team from The Woodlands area looking to move on to round 5.

Rockwall-Heath was first at bat and capitalized on the fresh pitcher and hit a nuke out of the field. With an early lead, the momentum sped up for the Hawks. But Oak Ridge quickly tied the lead in the bottom of the second.

Each team saw few base hits as the pitchers battled for their respective teams to take the lead. In the 4th, Rockwall-Heath was able to bring one in, giving them a slight advantage going into the 6th.

Aden Lucas, Oak Ridge pitcher, struggled to find the umpire's strike zone and quickly found himself with the bases loaded and no outs. Rockwall-Heath rallied and – with a couple of errors and a double – were able to bring in six runs. This gave them a comfortable lead as Oak Ridge struggled to close out the inning.

Going into the final inning, Oak Ridge once again struggled to close out the Hawks. With another pitcher change, Oak Ridge was able to retire Rockwall-Heath back to the dugout and fight in the bottom of the inning.

Oak Ridge would get a couple of hits and a run but would ultimately fall to Rockwall-Heath 8-2. They are set to face each other again in game 2 on Friday at Corsicana High School.